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Three years ago, I joined The Event Book as an intern through Event Academy. Today, I’m a Senior Account Manager, managing my own clients and events in the UK and internationally.
When I first started the Event Academy course, I knew I wanted to work in events, but I didn’t have a clear idea of exactly where I would end up. I definitely didn’t expect that my work-experience placement would turn into a full-time career and that, within three years, I would progress to Senior Account Manager.
Looking back now, joining Event Academy was really the starting point of my career in the industry.
Before Event Academy, I had already been working in hospitality in London for a few years, including in supervisory and management roles.
I enjoyed hospitality, especially the fast-paced environment and working with people, but I knew I wanted to move my career in a different direction. Events felt like a natural next step because I could use a lot of the skills I had already developed while moving into an industry with more opportunities to be creative, work on different projects and build a long-term career.
I started looking at ways to get into the industry and found Event Academy. The six-month course appealed to me because it wasn’t just about studying event management – there was also a strong focus on the actual industry and gaining practical experience.
The course gave me a much better understanding of what goes into organising an event from beginning to end.
We covered areas such as planning, budgeting, venues, suppliers, logistics, marketing and client management. More importantly, it helped me understand how all these different elements come together when you’re working on a real event.
I also started to understand just how broad the events industry is. Before the course, I don’t think I realised how many different roles, agencies, venues and suppliers were involved behind the scenes.
For me, one of the most valuable parts of Event Academy was its connection with the industry.
At the end of the course, I was given the opportunity to complete work experience with The Event Book, a London-based event agency.
At that point, my main goal was simply to get experience. I wanted to see what working in an agency was actually like and put into practice some of what I had learned during the course.
That placement ended up becoming much more than work experience.
When I joined The Event Book, I started by supporting the team with the day-to-day work involved in planning events.
I helped with venue and supplier research, proposals, enquiries, administration and event preparation. It gave me the chance to see the entire process – from receiving a client’s initial brief to finding the right venue, developing ideas, building a proposal and eventually delivering the event.
Coming from hospitality, I had already experienced events from an operational point of view, but agency life showed me a completely different side of the industry.
I also joined The Event Book at a time when it was a small and growing agency, which meant I was able to get involved in lots of different things rather than focusing on only one area.
I found that environment really suited me.
At the end of my placement, I was offered the opportunity to stay with The Event Book full-time.
That was the moment when something that had started as work experience became my actual career!
Over the following three years, my role changed a lot.
I gradually moved from supporting the team to managing my own enquiries and clients. I started taking more responsibility for venue sourcing, supplier management, proposals, budgets and client communication, managing projects from the first enquiry all the way through to the event itself.
With more responsibility came more confidence.
Events can be unpredictable, and I think a lot of confidence comes simply from experience. You learn how to deal with last-minute changes, find solutions quickly, manage different suppliers and expectations, and keep everything moving when there are a lot of things happening at the same time.
I’ve also learned a huge amount from working directly with clients and building relationships with venues and suppliers.
Today, as a Senior Account Manager, I can look after a project from the initial brief and creative ideas through to sourcing, planning, budgeting and delivery.
One of the things I enjoy most about my job is the variety.
Over the last three years, I’ve worked across corporate conferences, summer and Christmas parties, office takeovers and activations, networking events, dinners, venue takeovers and international projects.
Every client and every brief is different. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to work on projects for organisations including Cisco, Tech Mahindra, Ripple, QRT, Oliver Wyman and the Premier League, alongside many other clients across different industries.
I’ve worked on events ranging from smaller corporate experiences to events with hundreds of guests, and I’ve had the opportunity to work in some incredible venues and destinations along the way. From events at the Natural History Museum and a themed party at Tower Bridge in London, to projects in Barcelona and an event on board a yacht in Monaco, the variety of experiences has been one of the most exciting parts of my career so far.
A particular highlight for me was recently working on an executive conference in Milan for around 200 delegates.